Why Us?

It's a fair question. Why should you, as a client, hire us rather one of the many good consulting firms that are out there? While the importance of various factors may vary from client to client and from situation to situation, we believe that there are some key factors that differentiate us from the competition.

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Using New Technologies and Social Media to Collect Qualitative Data

Social and technological changes in the past decade pose both challenges and opportunities for researchers in collecting qualitative data. At FWCO we have embraced new technologies to take advantage of various systems to gather and analyse data. For example, we are the only firm providing consulting and evaluation services that have a dedicated position for social media/communication coordinator. Our capabilities in survey methodology and digital design, and use of interactive data collection platforms and applications, ensures that we meet the requirements of our clients and are able to conduct large scale surveys, including surveys with hard-to-reach groups, in a stipulated time frame and within budget.

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Our Longevity and Dedication

We have been around. Our expertise and our legacy of decades long experience and growth is our most important competitive advantage. Collectively, we are very old. Our senior staff have over 100 years of collective experience in serving clients and carrying out projects in wide range of fields. Although we have specialized teams, we also encourage our staff to get involved in as many areas of consulting business as possible so that they can learn and leverage knowledge from diversity of our assignments and topics. Having been in the business for many years and endured changes in technology, rising expectations, and core business practices is a testament of our abilities to embrace the new, build trust and loyalty with our client base and expend and provide the best services for our clients.

Diversity

Diversity of people, experiences and opinions. Our strength is based in the diversity of our people, their professional backgrounds, life experiences and independent thinking. To maximize the quality of our work, our policy is to undertake internal peer reviews of all reports. Accordingly, we use a senior member or associate of our firm (either Partner or Principal), who is not directly engaged in the evaluation assignment, to review all draft and final reports for every assignment. Our staff are encouraged to raise the concerns, questions and comments with senior management about any aspects of the projects.

A Strong Management System

We walk the talk. Most of our competitors are experienced professionals who provide thoughtful advice to their clients; however, very few are able to take that advice and apply it to their own operations. At FWCO we heard our own advice and were successful in building efficient operations and a management system that works for our clients, our colleagues and the future of our organization. We have developed highly standardized approaches, procedures, and formats for each component of our assignments which enable us to provide our services quickly and efficiently and yet also allow for creative and innovative ideas to flourish.

Our Openness to Change and Growth

Change is inevitable. We have seen it in our clients’ businesses and operations and have experienced it first hand in our own business. A key objective of our model is to continuously improve our processes, formats, materials, and tracking systems and incorporate those improvements into our business to extend and deepen our competitive advantages. We embrace the positive change and encourage all our staff to participate in yearly business planning activities through which we solicit feedback, focus on positive change and ideas, and identify challenges for growth and ways to implement the changes while minimizing disruption in our services. Our staff have the tenacity, endurance and passion needed to fulfill our collective vision and adapt to the changing needs of our clients and changing world. We have successfully implemented new technologies in our data collection practices, introduced flexible work environments, and continuously enhanced our business practices in order to provide greater opportunities for our staff and better research services for our clients.

Our Operating Efficiencies

High cost-efficiency does not mean low quality. Our low cost structure, which is reflected in our highly competitive hourly rates, represents a major competitive advantage for FWCO Management Consultants. In addition to strong management systems, FWCO has been able to achieve significant operating efficiencies through effective scheduling and planning processes, tight control of overhead costs, a flexible organizational structure and high degree of functional specialization. We place high priority on developing highly detailed project work plans, which enable us to efficiently and effectively hit the ground running in our field research.

Our Use of New Technologies and Social Media to Collect Qualitative Data

Social and technological changes in the past decade pose both challenges and opportunities for researchers in collecting qualitative data. At FWCO we have embraced new technologies to take advantage of various systems to gather and analyse data. For example, we are one of the few firms that have a dedicated position for social media/communication coordinator. Our capabilities in survey methodology and digital design, and use of interactive data collection platforms and applications, ensures that we meet the requirements of our clients and are able to conduct large scale surveys, including surveys with hard-to-reach groups, within the available budget and stipulated time frames.

We Engage and Collaborate

Our core principles include knowledge transfer through ongoing communication with our clients. We learn from our clients about their business, their goals and policies and challenges they face. We are fully committed to sharing and including our clients in all aspects of the research, to the extent they whish to be engaged. For some clients, this involves close collaboration in developing methodology report and research planning, for others it is adopting a hybrid approach to research were the clients’ staff conduct part of the research and/or work alongside consultants on all aspects of research including final analysis and report writing. With respect to engaging other stakeholders and partners we have developed effective strategies and communication protocols which ensure they understand the purpose of the research, their contribution is important and contributed to change.

Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality is our Highest Priority

Any personal information that we collect is subject to Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act and other applicable privacy laws. Our facilities and technology have the latest and most rigorous security measures. Our policies are aligned with all privacy and confidentiality applicable laws and measured. Our staff and contractors have security clearance required by government to handle personal information. Prior to collecting any information, we inform all participants of the objectives of collecting the information, how the information will be used, applicable laws and policies governing the privacy of information and destruction of all information collected. We do not include any information or data collected that could identify individuals in any reporting or communications.

We Create Viable Solutions – Execution Matters!

We take pride in finding innovative solutions for our clients.
However, we know that no matter how good and innovative the ideas are, they will fail if they are not viable and implementable.
We recognize that good ideas can come from any source and so we typically obtain input on key issues from a wide range of key stakeholders and establish a collaborative environment for reviewing results, identifying options, and developing recommendations.

We creaTe effEctive innovAtive comMunicative TEAMS

Our competitive advantage is that we have a large pool of highly experienced professionals with wide range of knowledge and expertise.
Our alignment with other leading public sector consultancies in Canada allows us to build the most experienced teams and subject matter experts. In association with other firms, we have access to more than 25 professional staff. This staff includes Credential Evaluators, Certified Management Consultants, and people fully fluent in both English and French as well as other languages.

Clearly Defined Issues and Approaches

In our practice, we place a very high priority on having a clear and shared understanding of the business structures, operations and issues involved. Einstein once said that “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” While we don’t advocate spending the majority of a project resources on the work plan, we do recognize that unless we have, in association with the client, very clearly defined the issues that we are going to address and the steps we will take to do that, our chances of coming up with innovative and effective solutions or answers are greatly diminished. Our standard approach is to develop a detailed work plan for each project, which includes a data analysis plan and a research matrix which will drive the design of both the data collection instruments and methodologies. We use critical path planning techniques (including PERT) to ensure that each step of the workplan is executed on schedule. We have an excellent track record in delivering projects on time and on budget.

We Bring Different Perspectives

Our approach to all assignments is rooted in integrity, inclusivity, collaboration, implementation of mixed research methods and reliability of our methods and evidence-based solutions. We have experience in applying various theoretical frameworks which provide a particular lens through which we may examine a topic. Examples of such frameworks include theories of change, gender studies, econometrics, anthropology, community participatory research, applied research, etc.

Strong Analytical Capabilities

We have strong data analysis skills supported by a range of analytical tools for cleaning, exploring, describing, testing validity, reliability and inter-relationships, transforming, modeling and visualizing quantitative and qualitative data with the goal of converting data into information and information into intelligence, generating conclusions, and supporting decision-making. We employ a variety of data analysis techniques to rule out alternative explanations of results and to enhance the generalizability of the results (e.g. address concerns related to internal and external validity).
Each work plan includes an agreed upon data analysis plan that specifies how the data collected through each line of evidence will be used to address the research questions and feed into the development of conclusions and recommendations.
As part of this step, we take into account the strengths and limitations of each line of inquiry.

Comprehensive Data Collection

Our position as a market leader in this industry reflects our demonstrated ability to implement a wide range of cost-effective field research programs, including literature, document, database and file reviews, interviews and surveys, site visits, case studies, and focus groups.